The Big Day!

Feeling relieved and extremely happy as I’m in one piece! The heli-drop was very successful, not to mention enjoyable. The day started with an 8 a.m. pickup in Keith’s car. We drove over the boarder from France into Switzerland and parked in a lay-by as we got our kit together and waited for the helicopter to pick us up. There were 5 of us in total, Myself, Keith McIntosh, Neil McNab, James Vernon, and Georgia Merton. James and Georgia were going to be filming the event. Neil was the High Mountain Guide and Keith was my guide! We had to sit crouched as the heli dropped down. It was very noisy and I was extremely nervous. It was as if the sound of the helicopter just made me realise what I was about to do. Because of the noise all my other senses were blinded. I had to rely on someone guiding me to the first step of the heli, ensuring our heads were down to keep safe from the propellers. I climbed in first and got comfortable for a 10 minute flight which flew us over a breathtaking mountainous terrain and at one point our pilot even flew us through a massive crevice. It was an amazing ride and Georgia sitting next to me described the journey to me so that I never missed a bit. The little sight I have remaining allowed me to see the darkness of the mountain walls as we flew near to them. We were dropped off on the Trient glacier.

We left our kit and walked up a little bank to a vantage point from where many peeks were visible. Neil described to me from this point the route we would be taking.
It was like being in another world, so quiet and surreal.

Keith and I did a little sound check to ensure our walky-talkys were working. The Starcom1 walky-talky system meant that Keith could have a wire down his arm with a button he could press to talk into a wind-proof mic attached to his goggles. I had a set of headphones attached to the inside of my helmet so I could hear Keith very clear at even high speeds.

We began the descent. The snow was quite crunchy and really bumpy to begin with and this meant I really had to keep my legs really relaxed and springy. I had a fall in the first minute or so, as I got use to the terrain. It was smooth sailing after that. We hit the flat section and this is where the hard work started. We had to hike! We took off our boards and attached them to our bags. We then put on some snow shoes which would give us more surface area and reduce the chance of poking through the glacier. We also had to attach ourselves to a rope and walk behind one another. We had to keep enough distance between ourselves to have some tension for the rope. If one of us was to unfortunately fall into a crevice, having the rest of us on the rope would stop the person from falling far as the rest of us would be effectively the deadweight on the rope!

We arrived at a section which had a big crevice and had a bridge of snow over it. We had to ensure that the snow was safe to hold our weight. Fortunately, all of us were in perfect shape not one inch of excess fat on us (haha). I got a little worried at this point. James, our cameraman, went over it first. James made it safely, so we slowly began the walk over the snow. I was very careful to ensure that I followed the exact line of the rope I was attached to and that I didn’t venture too much to either side. We all made it safely. We continued the hike for another 15 minutes. At the end of it, we were totally exhausted.

We clipped into our boards and began the second descent. However, after I made my first turn I couldn’t hear Keith in my ear anymore. ‘Oh dear’ I thought, that wasn’t good news. I called out to him, thinking something had happened to him. I heard his voice in the distance. He was still alive, however the batteries on his walky-talky were not! Thankfully I had spares and we were on the road, or should I say glacier, before long.

The weather had been perfect up to now. However, it was beginning to get cloudy and the weather forecast for the late afternoon had been bad.
There was the possibility that if the weather were too bad, the Heli wouldn’t come and we would either have to spend the night on the glacier in a small hut or attempt to walk down. However, due to the snow melting away lower down the mountain, this would have been a long walk and probably not the safest.

The cloud held back the poor weather a little longer. We got to another flat section and removed our boards. We began the final 30 minute hike to the spot where the heli was to meet us. On hearing the Helicopter we got our stuff close together and sat on the ground in a huddle.

The helicopter Landed a few meters away. Once again, it blinded all my senses. However, it wasn’t able to blind the feeling of the amazing relief on surviving one of the toughest challenges I had done in my life and demonstrating we can push the limits when it comes towards ourselves. With that thought, I climbed into the helicopter with the rest of the team.

I’ll place some of the pictures and a video clip from the descent on this site over the next day or so.

I still can’t believe it’s over. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of countless people. People who I trained with, my sponsors who covered most of my costs to ensure that every penny that people donated would go towards the charity, my family as I haven’t being seeing them much and all the people who have been reading my blog and sending kind emails and making donations towards the charity. I’m not going to provide am exhaustive list here as you would be exhausted reading it!

My descent down the glacier is over. I guess however the challenge has just begun for the children who survived the Asian earthquake of 2005 to begin building their lives. Your donations will help them as per every £1,400 we raise will equip one school assisting 30 children to receive an education and trauma support. So please don’t stop your donation from coming in if you haven’t donated already: www.justgiving.com/nextgeneration

Warm Regards


Adi